For those with any technical experience, please, please read this.

Let's say your ride is in for a inner primary leak at 20K miles, which would require the belt to come off. After finishing, the tech takes a check ride and the belt snaps, and gets picked up and service mgr explanes this to the owner. Owner asks if this is normal and the service manager says no, but it has a warranty specific to the belt, so no charge. Owner asks if this would have damaged anything else, and gets: "very doubtful".

2000 +/- miles later bike gets new vibration here and there, and goes to an Indy for a new front motor mount and 20K service. Over the next 1000 +/- miles it gets worse and goes back to Indy who rides it and says no vibs. Owner figures it's in his head and goes on. But the vibration has gotten so bad after another 1500 miles (total of about one year) that owner has personally replaced rear motor mounts, replaced the bottom and top stabilzers, installed an inner primary auto chain adjuster, removed and remounted entire exhaust twice, checked for every possible metal to metal contact, and removed, checked and remount Velva-Ride motor mount also twice. Dealer rides bike and says nothing noticable, it's a Harley. I want to believe my dealer because I like them very much.

A Glide-Pro motor mount has arrived and maybe that will help.

But owner, (and for those that haven't figured it out yet, it's me!) has had flashbacks to belt snapping day and wonders if there is internal damage that is progressively getting worse, something which the dealer has recently said wouldn't/shouldn't happen either. I'm thinking maybe the higher revs immediately after the belt snapping might have damaged the ??????????

I'm vibrating 'mostly' in certain rev ranges, say 20mph in 2nd, 30 in 3rd and so on. At 50 -60 not so much. If I pull in the clutch, the vibs seem to mostly go away. On deceleration from say 30+/- the vibs can get bad. No tach so I can't give exact RPMs, but I'm super-super easy on my 2001 RK. My eyes even get tired. Not to mention it's no fun riding, and I do mostly shorter types rides.

I'm 50+ years old with Extreme R/A and can't keep this type of physical work going.

So please, anyone with some real advise, please don't hold back. I love my bike.

Thanks in advance,

Yachtman

 

I am not a mechanic but my opinion is free. Some things in your post have me confused. First, if any internal damage was done when the belt snapped, ( and I also doubt there was any) I can't see it taking 200 miles to show up. The other thing that bothers me is that your dealer says there's no problem. If your bike had a problem, why wouldn't your dealer's service department want to fix it. Your bike is certainly out of warranty, so it would be a cash job for them. Crooked mechanics tell you there's a problem where there is none and charge you to fix the imaginary problem. It sounds to me ( again, this is only my opinion) like you've thought about it so much that you're mind is exagerating normal Harley vibration. They all vibrate, some a little some alot. Whatever the case, I hope you get some satisfaction so you can enjoy the bike again. It's a beauty!

 

I think I would have the frame aligned, but wait until you install the glide pro. Ive read in the manual when you change any of the mounts the alignment has to be checked and possibly reset. The vibes youre getting sound like rubber mounted engine harmonics and these will very well show up at certain speeds and rpm's.

 

I agree about the Dealer should want to fix it. But I've had other people ride it and they say the same. Even if you stand next to it and raise the RPMs up slowly and then let slow up easily, there will be a spot that if hold it at that RPM, the bike will shake alot more than it used. And I agree, I might be making the issue worse in my head, but........
I've also rode other RKs and don't get this much vibs.

And I like the dealer. I'd buy a bike from them. But you can't help but wonder if they sort of blew it off at the time the belt snapped, thinking that they would have to tear down the motor to fix the ???? something. Big bucks out of their pocket so maybe they just let it go and hope for the best, meaning the 'worst' never shows up. Also, the service mgr knows that I'm purchasing these parts from their parts counter, but no one has stopped me either!?!?

Is it possible at all that the crank has come out of round from this issue?

After the Glide-Pro goes in I'll have a full alignment done.

I was just hopefull that someone who services these might have an idea or an answer.

Thanks again.

 

I wonder why they pulled the belt with an inner primary leak? Unless the leak was to do with the tranny. Anyhow, you may have a bad crank. Have the crank run out checked by a professional.

 

Dawg,

Thanks for the reply. I meant the belt came off the sprocket in the primary for the service, so I was told. It snapped during the check out run.

If it is the crank, would it get worse over time and miles?

 

In the primary there is a chain, behind the primary there is a belt. Which snapped, the chain or the belt? If it was the chain that snapped, it takes a lot to snap a chain. The crank can continue to get worse over time and do more damage as it goes. I would seriously have the runout checked, you may find it is really bad.

 

I have the same problem on my wifes 05' RKC. Had to replace the front motor mount (which was the old style) with a new mount. The bike vibrates more now than before. The repair shop thinks the vibration is normal. Did not vibrate this bad with the broken mount. I am still trying to figure out the answer.

 

The belt snapped. A very clean snap.

At the suggestion from the dealer, that the inner chain might be getting tight spots, I installed the auto-adjustable HD unit. No help.

 

Could it be that the flywheel has slipped on the crank?